Ingrid Mattson – Issues Facing AmericanMuslims in 2016
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I've been back,
in Canada for 4 years now,
and, so you see my pace is a
little bit different.
We're a little bit more relaxed in Canada.
I was just telling, doctor Rami and doctor
Jackson that,
we have
a lot of vacation.
We have
years of maternity leave, not that I can
use it anymore.
26 weeks,
family care leave if you have someone sick
in your family.
All of these are paid, of course.
Believe me, good social
policies
make a difference in people's lives.
To be able to have the time
to to care for your family, to care
for the young, to care for the old,
to care for the sick,
to check-in on your neighbor,
to be able to have
some financial support when you're in trouble.
All of these things
are are what make a just society,
and it really matters
being involved in these issues or being apart.
Because so many people
who are frazzled
and tired and sick
and unable to really pay attention to their
kids,
to care for the elderly.
They feel horrible about their lives.
And it's the result
of terrible
social policies and economic policies in this country.
And that's the reality.
And if we don't get involved
on the policy level,
we can help with our soup kitchens and
we can do some band aid measures, and
we should do those.
But to do the kind of
collective action,
to address legislation
and policy is really what's going to make
a difference in people's lives.
It's so critically important,
and it is very overwhelming.
I understand that. There are so many different
issues, but what
brother Rami shows us is that this is
a question of,
of a collective obligation.
To have an organization like the man that
does the research, that understands the issues,
and then is able to tell us,
help us by voting this way, by calling
the congressmen
or congresswoman,
you know, whoever it is,
that will make a difference.
We don't have to know the details
about every issue.
We can't know the details about every issue,
but we need as a community to work
with Muslim Organizations,
interfaith organizations,
social justice organizations
that do understand these issues,
be on their mailing list, be on their
calling list, and help where we can.
And as brother Ronnie said, you know, take
an issue about which,
you're particularly
passionate about and pick it up. And that
way, we can really make,
some progress inshallah.
And so much
needs to be done. I mean, I really
feel
that the the amount of suffering in this
country now, the amount of people who just
simply are not even getting a fair wage
is is really shocking.
This is Labor Day weekend,
and we should here at ISNA take some
time
to really think about what that means.
It is because of the labor movement
that we enjoy so many of the rights
that we have today.
Right to a fair workplace,
the abolition of child labor,
to be able to complain when there's sexual
harassment
or bullying,
to have a wage
that gives some sort of decent compensation
for a person.
All of these things are part of
our faith. The prophet Muhammad
has many teachings about treating the worker well.
For example, he said pay the worker before
the sweat of the,
on his brow dries.
And today,
there are millions of workers in America who
have had to sue their employer because they
didn't get paid for work that they've done.
So,
you know, it it's easy for us to
to look at issues around us sometimes and
think, well, that's not an Islamic issue or
that's not a Muslim issue. I need to
prioritize
Islamic or Muslim issues.
But when we look in fact at the
teachings of the prophet Muhammad
what the Quran says,
we should understand
that being a Muslim
is not about identity.
It's not about having that Islamic or Muslim
label on it. It is about living the
ethics of the Quran and sunnah.
Living the morality, living the behavior and the
character,
that is give described to us
as good character, as just character, as as
what it means to be fair.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in Surat Al Isa
gives us a a kind of summary of
what those obligations
are. In translation,
this,
verse
verse 36 says,
worship God. Of course, it all begins with
worshiping God because if we don't submit ourselves
to Allah
we will continually
feel
the pull of our greed
and selfishness
and wanting to simply
just take care of ourselves and our nafs.
So it begins with this worship of Allah.
Worship Allah and do not ascribe or partner
to him.
Treat your parents with the greatest kindness.
We can't go and do things
and then ignore
our parents. And parents includes those elderly people
who are related to us, who are in
our community. They might not necessarily be our
own mother and or father, but they are
the mothers and fathers of our community.
Also so treat with treat with great kindness,
the greatest kindness to your parents as well
as relatives,
orphans,
the neighbor who is close to you and
the neighbor who is far.
Your friends,
the migrant, which I think is the best
translation of.
In the
Quran, we would say migrants, so that would
include all sorts of people who are on
the move and homeless and don't have a
permanent place to live or a safe place.
And also your captives, so the captives of
war.
God does not love those
who are conceded and arrogant.
And here is the key
for what will make this work
joyful,
what will make us work together as
respectable
and and respected
brothers and sisters to care for each other,
to be able to,
work for all of these causes without
stigmatizing the other person who might not be
on board our cause or might see a
different priority.
This is at the end of describing all
of these obligations. Allah
says that he does not love those who
are conceited and arrogant. And
this is where we see that in some
social justice work, some people swerve away.
There's a certain conceit and arrogance in saying
my way,
the tactics I use, the strategy I use,
my perspective on this issue
is the right one, and everyone else is
a bad Muslim, is a hypocrite,
is not on board, is selfish
without really engaging in conversation.
And it is this etiquette that is so
critical
because otherwise, we will end up squabbling and
not be able to accomplish anything
whatsoever.
It is really important that we, in our
work together with all that we have to
do, that we don't set litmus test for
each
other. That if you do not get involved
in this cause in my way, you must
be a hypocrite or you can't care you
don't really care or you're
this kind of Muslim or that kind of
Muslim. It is so easy for us to
fall in those kind of disagreements.
You know,
29 years ago
was my first ISNIC convention in Dayton, Ohio.
And I think about the passage of time.
You know, I wasn't married. I didn't have
any kids.
I was a new Muslim.
I was
had just applied to the University of Chicago
for my doctoral dissertation.
And time time just flies.
But 2 years later,
at my nest met next Disney convention, I
came back to Chicago,
starting my graduate school, starting my doctoral
program with a lot of questions.
And those questions I've tried to answer in
the last 3 decades.
And and at the heart of the of
of all of those questions is this,
why
are so many Muslims fighting with each other?
And why is it so easy for us
to call each other names and to cut
each other off?
Because in those 2 years, I went to
work in a refugee camp or a bunch
of refugee camps in Northern Pakistan
when the Soviets were occupying Afghanistan.
And there was an active war going on
and Muslims
and Christians
and
intelligence services and all sorts of people came
from all over the world
to go and
either help those people
or help themselves
or voice their ideological
agenda on those poor people
who had to flee their country. Millions of
Afghan people.
And and there I saw the best and
the worst of humanity.
I saw great Muslim men and women who
were working together like Allah says,
working together for the common good. And I
saw men who
absolutely oppressed women in the name of Islam.
And I saw Muslims who were trying to
work on one project and others who made
Takfir
so easily because of
their beliefs, their theology,
their school of thought.
So I came back here to this city
and to this university on the south side
and I said, I have I don't understand.
Why did this happen?
I studied theology and I studied history and
I studied law and the development of all
of these schools of thought.
And there's a lot
of complex answers. There's a there's a lot
of history back there.
What we should know, and I think,
you know, what it comes down to is
this,
is that
politics,
political engagement
will always be difficult.
We will
there will always be different perspectives.
We will feel very passionately and strongly about
these things.
Even the companions, the blessed companions of the
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
they had terrible disagreements
even resorting to the force of arms about
political matters immediately after the death of the
prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, and we're living with those disagreements,
some of those disagreements until today.
So anyone
who's seeking some kind of
utopian political or social order in Islam will
make themselves miserable and will make others miserable
around them.
They will be deeply disappointed and they will
seek,
the most ridiculous solutions
because
a utopia can only be a fantasy.
Still, we have to be involved. We have
to try. We have to do our best.
We can't separate ourselves out from it because
it's messy, because it's difficult, because we'll argue.
But at the very least, we should remember,
if at the heart of all of it,
we humble ourselves,
We
shun arrogance,
and we will become arrogant, so we just
have to simply remind ourselves,
don't be arrogant. Don't be arrogant.
Then inshallah, we will be able to have
some measure of success. We will be able
to move together
somehow,
in the future.
We are so embedded in the issue of
the day.
Right? We're so embedded in the issue of
the day. But I remember 15 years ago
when I was elected vice president, a week
before 911, we had so many issues then.
And a week after 911, we had many
other issues. And for 10 years,
you know, that I was involved in this
executive,
we worked so hard, traveled so much, so
many meetings and sleepless nights and advocacy and
speaking. And all of that is important and
I'm all of the
all of the goodness in this community and
other communities.
But
I don't confuse
all of that work
really
with my
with measuring,
you know, my relationship with Allah
I don't look at whether
we succeeded
in some material sense.
Yes, we tried.
Inshallah, there were some things that were good.
There were some that were bad, and we
have to be accounted for that. But in
the end,
this world is in the hands of Allah.
You know, this universe is in the hands
of Allah.
And we do you know, maybe this is
the cool Canadian in me, but sometimes we
do just have to step back
and take a breath
and and remember.
I'll finish with this.
To me, the most,
you know, in some ways amazing
earth shattering
and also comforting
ayah of the Quran to me
is the beginning of
Can you imagine
a time
a a a time of the epochs
when you never were even
a thing mentioned?
You put your mind back to that. It
was just a very short time ago. We
we didn't exist
and our parents didn't exist. So we weren't
even that dream that our parents would one
day have us.
You know,
never mentioned,
The time is long,
very long.
If you go go I I highly recommend
Werner Herzog's
documentary
Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Look what people
human beings 30000
years ago did through their drawings,
their hopes, their dreams, they're trying to connect
with the divine.
30 1000 years ago,
You know, we are here for a very,
very, very brief time.
We should work hard. We should try.
But in the end, we're just we're just
a drop in the bucket, and others will
come after us and others after them as
long as Allah
wants there to be people on this earth.
So remember
your role.
Remember
your true origin.
And that will keep us calm.
It will keep us focused,
and we'll never despair. We'll be full of
joy, and that's the joy we should have
because what is the next,
ayam
after this?
We
Allah
says he guided us to the path. He
guided humanity to the path,
and either you're grateful
or you're ungrateful. That's it.
You know, it's about gratitude. If you're if
you're grateful, you're gonna be humble. If you're
grateful, you're gonna wanna share. If you're grateful,
you're going to want to show your gratitude
by
serving the all the creatures of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, and you'll do it with joy,
not with misery
and making people
so
so,
you know, worried and disturbed and with a
frown on your face all the time. May
Allah help us and guide us and give
us that strength and give us that joy
and that courage
to do the work we need together
out of
love for him,
for the face of Al Rahman.